Hope Project Description

HOPE Humana is a project aiming to reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS and to offer care and support to those affected. The project plays an important role in reigniting the quality of life where human dignity has been thwarted, bringing hope, standing in solidarity with the infected and the affected.HOPE Humana started in Durban in 2003 where it was in operation for 3 years, reaching out to communities around Marianhill and Clermont. In 2007 two new HOPE Humana projects were started in Mopani District in Limpopo and Bushbuckridge in Mpumalanga with funding from USAID offering mobile HCT and support to orphans and people living with HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis. Another HOPE Humana project was started in Zululand in 2013. All together the HOPE projects have reached more than 90 000 people through outreach programs, opinion forming activities and health services.HOPE establishes a centre in the community as the base for actions to stop HIV/AIDS and TB and to support people and communities affected by the disease. From the HOPE Centre, the project operates in three main lines: Outreach Programs, Opinion Forming Activities and Health Services including Voluntary Counselling and Testing. The Centre is open to the public and people have access to the centre at any time of the day. It is manned by well trained staff that ensures that anyone who comes to the centre is guided to where he can access different services and information regarding HIV/AIDS. It acts as a resource centre for people who want to know more about HIV and AIDS.

HOPE operates within a framework of 3 Lines of Activities:

Outreach ProgramsHOPE projects seek to create alliances and synergies in continuous mobilisation of people to adapt safer sexual behavior, and to be part of the community's response to HIV/AIDS and TB. The Outreach Program reaches out to children, youths and adults in schools, workplaces, townships and rural communities, and organizes the people in clubs with trained Peer Educators and Peer Counsellors. The aim of the Outreach Program is creating alliances with all people through orphans and vulnerable children programs, workplace programs, training of men and women in the fight against sexual abuse, formation of vegetable and herbal gardens for improved nutrition, formation of youth clubs and Positive Living Clubs, and addressing sexual gender based violence in the community. The program also reaches out to commercial sex workers and truck drivers through awareness campaigns. The people are mobilized to know more about HIV/AIDS and TB so they can act responsibly to protect themselves.

Opinion Forming ActivitiesOpinion Forming Activities seek to influence and involve decision makers and opinion leaders to support the project in the fight against HIV/AIDS actively. This is done through community dialogues, identifying role models, inviting prominent persons to be guest speakers, company directors and local politicians. Activities carried out include publishing of newsletters, pamphlets and posters, participating in radio programs, holding public speeches, addressing issues of gender based violence, stigma and discrimination and raising the issue of HIV/AIDS in many gatherings and forums.

Health ServicesHOPE Centres give health services, referrals to clinics, offer adherence support and advice on sexually transmitted diseases to communities. HOPE projects have mobile HIV/AIDS testing units that move around testing and giving pre– and post-test counselling. Where HOPE does not offer HIV testing services, it refers people for HIV testing and TB screening and work with the clinics to secure that those who test HIV positive or are diagnosed with TB get the needed support. HOPE starts Support Groups and Trios for people living with HIV/AIDS, forms Positive Living Clubs and nutrition gardens. The HOPE centres provide programs on how to live a long and productive life when one has tested positive with practical guidelines of how to boost one's immune system and fight the HIV virus. HOPE offers courses on Positive Living and Advocacy for people living with HIV and TB, where participants learn to live with their disease and at the same become advocates in their communities. Positive Living Advocates are willing to share their HIV status with others and give real life testimonies about how they are living positively with the disease. HOPE also works together other organizations and government in the target areas to offer support to women who have been sexually abused.